What I Learned in July

July 19, 2014

July has been hot and exciting and frustrating. Sickness went through the house and then there were activities and cook outs and spur of the moment shopping trips and then the trip of the summer that I was looking forward to. I am finishing out this month feeling a little overwhelmed, a little weary, and so not ready for fall. 

Let's look back on the good by thinking about some of the things that I learned this month.

* Spending my summers in the south, I would always go outside to paint my nails. Over the last few years, I've been trying that here and it always ends up in chunky polish. This epiphany dawned on me: Does the humidity of the south allow the polish to warm up without getting totally chunky? 

* The corn husking trick that's going around on FB is genius! How many hours of my childhood could have been spent so much differently?!?! 

* Shauna and I read "I Never Had It Made" this month. It taught me that Malcom X was a Muslim (how did I NOT know that?) and that Martin Luther King Jr. was once stabbed by a black woman in New York and that Jackie Robinson had quite an interesting life after baseball. 

* During a little summer cold that I caught, I resorted to watching strange things on Netflix and Amazon. "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" happened to be one of them. I remember seeing her in the catalog and wishing those books were still in my "reading level" at school...Now I know two things: I would have LOVED reading her series and that she DID NOT grow up in New York like I had always imagined. 

* Also due to my little cold, I had some extra time to read. I finally know why To Kill A Mockingbird has been my Mom's favorite book. It IS so much more than the sad story about the black man that is being charged for a crime that he did not commit. Read it!  It is soooo worth your time!

* I also learned a TON about geocaching thanks to a little geocaching101 workshop. We got an ETrex and have been finding so many caches! 

* That a man with a racquetball racquet can bring me to tears without saying a word. And that a man in speedo shorts can make me laugh and think of my Grandma in the very next instant. (I think I'll be posting about this one...)

* At the Hudson's lunch counter, I learned a quick way to shape hamburger patties. Put a hunk of meat on a board (or whatever) and use a large spatula (the pancake flipper kind) to press it down moving the spatula around as the patty grows. No more finger marks and they are PERFECT. Genius, I tell you!

* No matter how hard you fight, anxiety does not ever just "go away". You think you have it licked and then, BAM, it's back with a vengeance. Don't take it out on the ones closest to you. You need them. 

ps - Don't forget about the chance to share a post with your testimony this coming Tuesday! Jenna and I would love to have you join us. Find out more by clicking HERE.